Roxy Hart.
Hey everybody, sorry it's been a while, but here's the next chappy so enjoy.
Chapter Two: Lives Shattered.
Roxy walked out of her dorm and out to the street where she smiled at the sight of her boyfriend in his car waiting for her. In the back seat sat his little brother Nosedive who was, as usual waving a little too energetically, making her laugh. She walked over and got in giving Wildwing a kiss before letting him start driving. They were going to the park to meet Wildwing's best friend Canard and his girlfriend from military school. Nosedive was going to play some street hockey with friends on the rink there whilst they had lunch at the open air café.
It had only been a few months since she and Wildwing had started dating and only a few more since they'd first met, but she had to admit that she had fallen for him big time. The only slight technical hitch was every time she wanted to tell him that she would chicken out and end up doing something stupid, not that she minded Wing seemed to like it when she did things like spill her coffee, hiccup at the most unfortunate moments or trip over something that wasn't there.
Soon they were parking up and heading towards the café, Dive shouted bye and rushed off to his friends who were soon playing hockey like they were in a major league team. Roxy and Wildwing found a table and ordered a hot chocolate and a cappuccino to tide them over whilst they waited for Canard and his date who arrived five minutes later, his date was a relatively small built red head.
"Hey Wing!" Canard waved with one had, keeping the other around the red head's shoulder. Then he looked at Roxy, "You have got to be Roxy." He held out his hand and she shook it.
"Hi." She said then looked at the red head waiting for an introduction.
"Oh this is Mallory," he looked at his date who looked a little uncomfortable, "Mallory this is my friend Wildwing and his girlfriend Roxanne."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mallory." Wildwing smiled at her also noticing that she seemed a little uncomfortable but his tanned friend seemed to be oblivious to it so for now he let it pass and hoped she would warm to them. All he knew about her was she came from a military family like Canard.
They ordered some lunch and Roxy started telling Canard about the play she was in, she hadn't landed the part she'd wanted in the musical she auditioned for when she and Wildwing had first met but she had received an offer for a big production called Nightingale which had started two weeks before hand and she admitted that she preferred this one not only because she was being paid but also because all the publicity she was getting from it, she already had offers for parts in bigger thing starting after she had finished Nightingale and agents were approaching her from all over the place wanting her to go on their books as a client.
"How can you do that?" Mallory piped up for the first time since they'd met.
"Huh." Roxy turned to her.
"Well how do you go in front of all those people and show off like that?" Mallory didn't look like she'd meant to offend, she looked like she was generally interested but Wildwing did notice the flush rise and fall under Canard's feathers.
"Well, when I go out on stage I get this huge adrenaline buzz." Roxy said hoping she explained it right.
"What do you mean?"
"Well I love to perform, make people happy you know," Mallory shook her head, "um well I guess in a way I . . . uh . . . I guess I like being someone else, even for a little while and if that make people happy and earns me a living then who am I to complain.
"I could never do something like that," Mallory stated.
"Can you really sing as well as they say you can?" Canard asked.
"Well," it was Roxy blushed a little, "I don't know about that but the producers seem to like me so I've got to be doing something right."
"You're just being modest Roxy," Wildwing draped his arms around her shoulders and gave her a hug then looked over towards Canard, "she's amazing."
"Hey," Canard looked up at the sky, "is it just me or is getting cloudy?"
"I thought the weather forecast was for clear skies all day?" Roxy said.
"It was," Wildwing glanced over towards the rink to check on Dive before looking up himself, but what he saw wasn't clouds there was a whole swarm of blood red ships in the sky, "what in hell's going on?"
Roxy looked up and paled which looked very odd for a jet black duck, "No, not now!" She whispered.
"What?" Canard asked her.
"We have to run now!" Roxy stood up and pulled on Wildwing's arm dragging him in the direction of Dive and his friends.
"Why what is it?" Mallory caught up with them, Canard close behind her.
"Saurians." Was all she said before putting all her attention into finding Nosedive, "Dive!" He turned to look at her and waved, "Dive we have to. . ." The explosion was just outside the park but the effect was immediate everyone started screaming. Roxy and the others looked up to see the ships opening fire on the city. "We have to get Dive and get out of the city now!" She yelled.
"The saurians are a legend!" Canard yelled back, "this can't be happening."
"Most legends are based in fact army boy and," she pointed up at the sky, "there's the fact this one was based on," she turned to find Wildwing missing. She frantically scanned the crowds and spotted Wildwing trying to make his way back to them with Nosedive in tow. Just then flashes of green lights appeared all around them and when they faded saurians were in their place. The screaming intensified, Roxy felt someone grab her and pull her away from Wildwing who was still desperately trying to get to them but was blocked off by about three saurians and she felt her heart almost stop as she watched him being taken prisoner and herded into a large group. She was so busy keeping her eyes on Wildwing and Nosedive that she had no idea what Canard was doing until she felt herself falling and landing in his arms in the sewers.
"What?" Roxy looked up at him when he let her down next to Mallory.
"Like you said we had to get out of there." He replied looking around as if deciding what tunnel to take.
"I meant all of us!" Roxy pulled on his arm so he turned to her, "What about Wildwing! What about Dive! We have to help them!"
"Three unarmed ducks against what looks like a fully trained saurian army," Mallory looked back up at the entrance, "doesn't sound like a good idea to me."
"Mal's right we get out of the city first, get to one of the army barracks, if they've been hit then we steal some weapons and find a safe place to stay where we can work out how we can rescue Wing and Dive." Canard placed a hand on her shoulder, he wanted just as much as she did to rescue his friend.
"Kids gotta point y'know." All three spun round and squinted in the shadows to see where the voice had come from.
"Who's there?" Canard asked.
"Name's Duke." Replied the voice still cloaked in darkness.
"Well Duke, what do you mean?" Canard manoeuvred himself in front of the girls.
"You try to rescue your friends now you'll only get yourselves captured or worse what good'll that do 'em? And I ain't a saurian kid so you don't have ta do the hero thing on my account. I'm jus' tryin' ta 'scape the rucus up there." Duke stepped forward into a little more light to show he was a fellow duck and noticed three teens relax a little. "Listen I know a place you could be safe till it calms down a bit and we can all take a few more risks.
"How do we know we can trust you?" Mallory asked.
"You don't sweetheart but right now you guys don't have a whole lot a choice."
"We can trust him." Roxy replied in a tone that implied ask questions later.
"Okay, fine," Canard snapped. Duke smiled and walked down a tunnel to their right. After twisting and turning for what seemed like an eternity they came to a dead end.
"Lost?" Roxy asked sarcastically.
"Not likely kid." He pushed what looked like an old pipe and it moved a few seconds later a door opened. They followed him through, along a corridor into a large room, on a sofa there was a sand feathered falcon watching a monitor almost too intently, a girl with black feathers and dark green hair was in the corner typing furiously at a computer and on the edge of the table another girl with electric blue hair, was sitting chewing gum and watching the girl at the computer.
"Trix," the girl with the blue hair looked up when Duke spoke, "find these kids someplace ta sleep."
"Like I don't have enough to do," Trix replied but got off the table and headed for a door to the far left of the room, "but I'm only doing it cause the guy's cute." Canard coughed and flushed, Duke rolled his eyes.
"Kendra what's happenin with the others?" Duke walked over to the girl at the computer she turned to Duke, she glanced up at him then continued typing.
"The others are bringing in who they can and I'm in contact with our other outlets all over the world." She stopped typing and turned to look at Duke again but this time didn't look back at her screen, "from the info I've gathered they've already decimated Puckworld's armies and taken three quarters of the planet prisoner. Looks like we've fallen from grace just like in the prophecy."
"What about the havens?" Duke glanced over at Canard, Mallory and Roxy, who at this point while interested were feeling more than a little uncomfortable.
"Only forty percent of them are fully up and running, another thirty are liveable but the rest are just caves," Kendra looked back at her computer and brought up some information for Duke to look at, "we just did not have enough time or money to get them all done before they hit."
"Whoa, now hold on," Mallory stepped forward and slipped into her military mode giving her a little more confidence, "you guys knew this was going to happen? And who are you people!"
"They're the brotherhood of the Blade" all eyes turned to Roxy as she studied the floor, "they're also sort of my family."
So there's the next chappy sorry it took so long, toodles Angel xxx.
